Lead paint surveys

Lead, including its compounds, is a substance that has long been known to have the potential to damage health and excessive exposure to lead can cause serious health problems.

Although, lead is no longer used in new paint products, existing paint coating may still contain lead at a level that may be considered as hazardous to health. In the UK, any work involving the use of lead containing materials, which includes any work with dry lead paint coating, is covered by the Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002.

It is recommended when any work is to be carried out involving paint coating that may potentially contain lead, the first stage of the risk assessment is to identify if there is any lead and what quantity.

At Eton Environmental Group, we provide a full lead survey of buildings or specific locations where work is to be carried out that may involve disturbance of paint coatings.

According to the Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002 , the duty the Regulations place on every employer to prevent or adequately control the exposure of employees to lead applies irrespective of the source of that exposure.

The Regulations require employers to:

(a) make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health of employees created by the work to include whether the exposure of any employees to lead is liable to be significant;

(b) identify and implement the measures to prevent or adequately control that exposure; and

(c) record the significant findings of the assessment as soon as is practicable after the assessment is made.

If exposure is liable to be ‘significant’, all the regulations will apply, in particular the need to:

(a) issue employees with protective clothing;

(b) monitor lead-in-air concentrations; and

(c) place the employees under medical surveillance.

Employers should use the findings from their assessment to:

(a) decide the measures needed to control exposure to lead adequately; and

(b) identify any other measures necessary to comply with the Regulations.

Our trained surveyor will be on site to carry out a full survey or a sampling as directed by the client. The samples will be analysed by an independent UKAS accredited laboratory to determine the lead content by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS Analysis). The samples containing lead will be identified and the percentage of lead contents calculated.

A full report will be provided based on the site observation and quantitative analysis of the paint coating samples taken during the survey or sampling.